The entire disclosure of Japanese patent application No. 2000-182728 filed on Jun. 19, 2000, including the specification, claims, accompanying drawings and abstract of the disclosure is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, in order to claim priority right according to 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a liquid waste disposal apparatus serving to absorb, to solidify and to dispose a liquid waste such as unwanted blood, other body fluids, secretion derived from a medical scene or pus or physiological sodium chloride solution used for cleansing affected areas.
2. Description of Related Art
A liquid waste (e.g. unwanted blood, other body fluids, secretion, pus, or physiological sodium chloride solution used for cleansing affected areas) derived from medical scenes, particularly at a scene of surgical operation, is collected into a container or a collecting bag for disposal and incineration by an absorbing apparatus.
However, since the liquid waste may contain a harmful bacteria or the like, a secondary infection may occur among medical employees, hospital patients and the like, when the container or the collecting bag becomes damaged or when an excessive amount of the liquid waste is absorbed exceeding a capacity of the collecting bag.
For preventing thus created problem, an apparatus for solidifying a liquid waste with a water-absorptive material arranged inside a collecting bag is provided and methods for arranging the liquid waste solidifying water-absorptive material inside the collecting bag are provided such as: a method of forming a collecting bag with a non-water permeable sheet and a water-absorptive sheet stuck with each other in which the water-absorptive sheet is arranged as an inner surface, a method of dropping a prepared water-absorptive material into a collecting bag after an absorption of liquid waste, or a method of fixing a water-absorptive material at a bottom portion of a collecting bag.
Furthermore, in means to increase the liquid waste disposing capacity of a liquid waste disposal apparatus, a liquid waste disposal apparatus having 2 continuously arranged collecting bags, or a liquid waste disposal apparatus having 4 or 6 consecutively arranged collecting bags disposed along a same circumference on top of a wheeled base are being proposed, and further, a shutting off valve or the like could be provided at the terminal row of the collecting bags for automatically stopping an absorption of the liquid waste when multiple collecting bags are serially connected to form a straight line.
Nevertheless, when the multiple collecting bags are connected along a same circumference for increasing the liquid waste disposing capacity, a user of the disposing apparatus could not easily confirm the remaining containment capacity of the disposing apparatus since the collecting bags were unable to be viewed from a single direction.
Further, when the multiple collecting bags are connected forming a straight line, a special kind of collecting bag differentiated from the rest of the collecting bags is required for a collecting bag arranged at the terminal row since the collecting bag arranged at the terminal row is requires the shutting off valve; accordingly, thus requiring of a different kind of collecting bag raises a problem of increasing production costs and increasing product management costs.
Further, the disposal apparatus structured with the non-water permeable sheet and the water-absorptive sheet stuck with each other caused an inner portion to be unable to be seen from outside and also caused difficulty of folding and also caused inconvenience during storage and transport owing to a multiple overlapping structure of the disposal apparatus.
Further, the disposal apparatus using the method of dropping a prepared water-absorptive material into a collecting bag after the absorption of liquid waste is unable to perform further absorption once a solidification process is completed and also a danger remained when toppled during the middle of an operating process since solidification would not proceed until the water-absorptive material is dropped inside the collecting bag.
A disposal apparatus using the method of fixing a water-absorptive material at a bottom portion of a collecting bag would cause a solidifying speed to decrease in association with the proceeding of the liquid waste absorption process.
This invention is aimed to solve the foregoing problems, and an object thereof resides in providing a multiply connected type liquid waste disposal apparatus to unify the kind of canister bottles used for multiple connection, to provide plural patient hoses for separate use, to enable easy visual recognition of a containment capacity even if a liquid waste disposing capacity is increased, and to solidify more rapidly an absorbed liquid waste.
The multiple continuous type liquid waste disposal apparatus regarding this invention comprises: n (n being equal to or more than 3)connected canister bottles; the canister bottles having an absorption port and a discharge port; the canister bottles containing a liquid waste absorbed from the absorption port; the canister bottles enabling the contained liquid waste to be seen from outside, wherein: the discharge port of a first canister bottle is connected to the absorption port of a second canister bottle, and the discharge port of the second canister bottle is connected to the absorption port of a third canister bottle, and . . . the discharge port of nxe2x88x921 canister bottle is connected to the absorption port of n canister bottle; and the foregoing canister bottles form a straight line by being serially connected in an order starting from the first canister bottle to the n canister bottle.
Thus structured, this invention enables all of the canister bottles to be viewed from a single direction by serially connecting the canister bottles in an order starting from the first canister bottle to the n (n being equal to or more than 3)canister bottle and forming a straight line; this invention also allows the user of the disposal apparatus to easily confirm the remaining containment capacity of the disposal apparatus since the liquid waste is contained in an order starting from the first canister bottle to the n canister bottle.
The multiple continuous type liquid waste disposal apparatus regarding this invention is further structured with plural connected canister bottles, each of the canister bottles having an absorption port for absorbing liquid waste, each of the canister bottles having a discharge port for discharging liquid waste, each canister bottle serving to contain the liquid waste absorbed from the absorption port; wherein, each of the canister bottles has an exhaust port for creating negative pressure inside the canister bottle; the discharge port of one canister bottle is connected to the absorption port of the other canister bottle in a serially connected manner; and the exhaust port of a terminally arranged canister bottle is closed.
Thus structured, this invention enables the liquid waste to be absorbed and contained consecutively into the serially connected multiple canister bottles by connecting the discharge port of one canister bottle to the absorption port of another canister bottle and forming a serial connection while closing the discharge port of the canister bottle arranged at the terminal row to allow exhaustion from the exhaust port of each canister bottle for internally creating negative pressure.
This invention could also reduce the kind of canister bottle to allow the reduction of production cost and product management cost since the kind of canister bottle used for the canister bottle arranged at the terminal row is unified with that of the other canister bottles.
This invention also enables all of the canister bottles to be viewed from a single direction by serially connecting the plural canister bottles in order so as to form a straight line; this invention also allows the user of the disposal apparatus to easily confirm the remaining containment capacity of the disposal apparatus since the liquid waste is contained in the order according to the arrangement of the canister bottles.
The multiple continuous type liquid waste disposal apparatus regarding this invention is further structured with plural connected canister bottles, each of the canister bottles having an absorption port for absorbing liquid waste, each of the canister bottles having a discharge port for discharging liquid waste, each canister bottle serving to contain the liquid waste absorbed from the absorption port; wherein: each of the canister bottles has an exhaust port for creating negative pressure inside the canister bottle; the canister bottles are separated into at least two groups in which the discharge port of one canister bottle is connected to the absorption port of the other canister bottle in a serially connected manner; each of the separated canister bottle groups has a terminal canister bottle with a closed discharge port; and each of the separated canister bottle groups has a primary canister bottle with a patient hose connected to the absorption port.
Thus structured, this invention allows the plural patient hoses for each of the separated canister bottle groups to be used separately and enables the liquid waste to be absorbed and contained consecutively into the serially connected multiple canister bottles by providing the foregoing constitution wherein: each of the canister bottles has an exhaust port for creating negative pressure inside the canister bottle; the canister bottles are separated into at least two groups in which the discharge port of one canister bottle is connected to the absorption port of the other canister bottle in a serially connected manner; each of the separated canister bottle groups has a terminal canister bottle with a closed discharge port; and each of the separated canister bottle groups has a primary canister bottle with a patient hose connected to the absorption port.
This invention could also reduce the kind of canister bottle to allow the reduction of production cost and product management cost since the kind of canister bottle used for the canister bottle arranged at the terminal row of the respective separated canister bottle group is unified with that of the other canister bottles.
This invention also enables all of the canister bottles to be viewed from a single direction by serially connecting the plural canister bottles regarding each group of canister bottles in an orderly manner so as to form a straight line; this invention also allows the user of the disposal apparatus to easily confirm the remaining containment capacity of the disposal apparatus since the liquid waste is contained in the order according to the arrangement of the canister bottles regarding each group of canister bottles.
By providing the canister bottle comprised of an outer container having inside an internal bag containing a solidifying agent, the liquid waste could be solidified inside the internal bag so that the internal bag could be solely and sanitarily disposed.
By providing a float inside the internal bag of the canister bottle in which the float retains the solidifying agent and has a specific gravity less than 1, a liquid level could be easily confirmed from outside by checking the position of the float since the float would always remain afloat at a gas-liquid interface, and the user could also easily confirm the used amount as well as the remaining containment capacity.
In a process where the liquid waste is absorbed, a water-absorptive material could constantly spread among the newly absorbed liquid waste and swiftly and effectively solidify the liquid waste since the float having a specific gravity less than 1 constantly stays afloat at the liquid-gas interface.
Even when the absorption is started once again after a cease of the absorption process, solidification could be performed swiftly, and the float could serve as a level gauge for indicating the amount of content since the float constantly stays afloat at the liquid-gas interface. The manufacturing cost would be inexpensive owing to a simple structure of the float.